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David was old and full of days, he made his son Solomon king over Israel.
2 Then he gathered together all the leaders of Israel, as well as the priests and the Levites. 3 The Levites were counted from the age of thirty years old or more, and the total number of men was thirty-eight thousand. 4 “Of these,” David said, “Twenty-four thousand are to supervise the work of the House of the Lord, six thousand are to be officers and judges, 5 four thousand are to be gatekeepers, and four thousand are to praise the Lord with the instruments that I made for singing praises.”
6 David arranged them in divisions according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
7 The Gershonites:
Ladan and Shimei.
8 The sons of Ladan:
Jehiel the chief, Zetham, and Joel—three.
9 The sons of Shimei:
Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran—three. These were the heads of the ancestral households of Ladan.
10 The sons of Shimei:
Jahath, Zina, Jeush, and Beriah. These were the sons of Shimei—four.
11 Jahath was the first, and Zizah the second, but Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons, so they were assigned together as a single ancestral house.
12 The sons of Kohath:
Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel—four.
13 The sons of Amram:
Aaron and Moses. Aaron was set apart, he and his descendants forever, to consecrate the most holy things, to burn incense before the Lord, to minister to Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name forever. 14 The sons of Moses the man of God were reckoned among the tribe of Levi.
15 The sons of Moses:
Gershom and Eliezer.
16 The sons of Gershom:
Shebuel was the first.
17 The sons of Eliezer:
Rehabiah was the first.
Eliezer had no other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very numerous.
18 The sons of Izhar:
Shelomith was the first.
19 The sons of Hebron:
Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth.
20 The sons of Uzziel:
Micah the first, and Isshiah the second.
21 The sons of Merari:
Mahli and Mushi.
The sons of Mahli:
Eleazar and Kish.
22 Eleazar died without having any sons, he had daughters only. Their cousins, the sons of Kish, married them.
23 The sons of Mushi:
Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth—three.
24 These were the descendants of Levi by their ancestral houses—the heads of families as they were registered under their names on the census, that is, those men twenty years and over who did the work for the service of the House of the Lord. 25 For David said, “The Lord, the God of Israel, has given rest to his people, and he has come to dwell in Jerusalem forever. 26 So the Levites will no longer need to carry the Tabernacle or any of the articles used in its service.” 27 According to the last instructions of David, the Levites twenty years old or more were counted.
28 The duty of the Levites was to assist the descendants of Aaron in the service of the House of the Lord, to be responsible for the courtyards and the chambers, the purification of all the holy things, and the performance of the service of the house of God. 29 They were in charge of the rows of showbread, the fine flour for the grain offering, the unleavened wafers, the baking, the mixing, and with all measurements of quantity and size. 30 They were also to stand every morning to give thanks and praise the Lord, and likewise in the evening 31 and whenever burnt offerings were offered to the Lord on the Sabbaths, New Moons, and the appointed feasts. They were to serve before the Lord regularly, according to the number prescribed for them.
32 So the Levites are to carry out their responsibilities for the Tent of Meeting, to the Holy Place, and to their brothers, the sons of Aaron, in the service of the House of the Lord.